I just hung up the phone with the President of a US-based CiviCRM consultancy. He's interested in collaborating with Future First on our SMS based survey system. We discussed a lot of different options, but all of them had one thing in common: we had to release the resulting software publicly. That, to us, is what CiviCRM is. It is collaborating and sharing, to produce, deliver, and share the technology we all need.

Here at the CiviCRM 2014 Edale Sprint we've been working closely with members of the core team. As well as fixing bugs, working on integrating Google Summer of Code projects, and readying extensions for release, it's been an excellent opportunity for the Future First Software Developers to learn directly from the CiviCRM experts themselves.

I'd left my previous job to start working, for the first time, as the only Software Developer at a small London-based charity. Future First is an education charity that aims to help state schools mobilise their former students. This can involve (but isn't limited to) getting alumni to e-mentor current students, do presentations in school assemblies, meet students at open days, or provide donations, in much the same way that private schools have been doing for centuries. The results so far have been spectacular, having started in 2009 in London, Future First is now operating in schools throughout England and are soon to start in Wales. This isn't mentioning the pilot project in Kenya!